May is National Photo Month. Photographs are easier than ever to take and to share—with cell phones and social media we can record our lives by the day or by the minute. But will we remember what every snapshot depicts? The digital image might record the date and time of the picture. But unless we […]
May Is National Photo Month Read More »
This picture was taken shortly after my mother’s first Mother’s Day in 1956. That’s me on her lap—her oldest child. She loved reading, and she started teaching me early. Despite my mother’s early lessons, I spent the first thirty years of my life trying not to be like her. It wasn’t until around my 30th birthday that
Happy Mother’s Day to My Mother, the Reader Read More »
Even though the saying is “April showers bring May flowers,” we’ve found plenty of flowers to post about in April. Still, May Day baskets were a thing at one point. People left paper or straw baskets full of flowers on each other’s porches. Children in the 19th and early 20th centuries would put a basket
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Last week I visited a small town in Missouri. The closest neighbors were out for their morning constitutional. We eyed each other warily. How do you get along with your neighbors? Theresa HuppTheresa is the award-winning author of historical fiction about settling the American West. Before she turned to writing, Theresa was an attorney, mediator, and
When I was growing up, my Easter basket always contained a toothbrush and toothpaste. The Easter Bunny continued that tradition with my children, and sometimes added other useful items like socks. My children complained, of course. Particularly when the Easter Bunny kept the toiletries coming through their college years. But one year after my daughter
What Was in Your Kids’ Easter Baskets? Read More »
I hate the weeks leading up to April 15 (this year it’s April 18) when I have to gather all the information for our tax returns. I start worrying about this process in January, but don’t start doing anything until February. Or maybe March. This year, I have been responsible not only for my husband’s
The Tax Man Cometh Read More »
Forty-five years ago this week, my husband took me out for a birthday dinner–my first birthday after we began dating. We went to a wonderful restaurant in Palo Alto, California, where we were going to law school. We ordered wine – it was my 21st birthday, and I was finally legal. (Well, I’d been legal in
Strawberries Romanoff Read More »
I’m not sure this is something to be proud of, but I believe our family owns the oldest bottle of Formula 409 cleaner in America. (If anyone can prove me wrong, please feel free to do so.) My husband is a firm believer in the powers of 409 cleaner to handle almost any household messes.
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As I write about pioneers in the American West, I think a lot about women’s perspectives on leaving their homes and setting off on the journey along the Oregon Trail. On my blog, I’ve written about specific women—Narcissa Whitman, Jessie Benton Fremont, Elizabeth Dixon Smith, Keturah Belknap, and others—and quoted some of their words, but these posts don’t
Elizabeth Markham: One Woman’s Perspective on the Oregon Trail and on Matrimony Read More »
It’s March Madness, and this always brings a memory to mind. My mother was an Oregon Ducks fan. She graduated from the University of Oregon, and she and my dad (a University of Washington grad) had a friendly rivalry throughout their lives. My mother was not a sports fan, but she always rooted for the